Katharina Thalbach in the new “Miss Merkel”: What was the shoot on the high seas?

Katharina Thalbach (71) can be seen for the third time in the crime series “Miss Merkel”. RTL shows “Miss Merkel – a cruise thriller” this Tuesday, September 2 at 8:15 p.m. (in advance). “This fun, a bit of Miss Marple and a little Angela Merkel,” Thalbach still irritates how she reveals in an interview with Spot on News. “She is clever, wise and a little uninhibited because the age protects her,” she says of the role of the detective ex-chancellor.

In the successor of “Murder in the Castle” and “Murder in the Cemetery”, husband Achim (Thorsten Merten, 61) and Bodyguard Mike (Tim Kalkhof, 37) are on a crime thriller with some crime writers. What was planned as a fun vacation ends in a murder case: On the first evening, Thriller star Florian Watzek (Stephan Luca, 51) unexpectedly dies and the other successful crime writers become main suspects.

For Katharina Thalbach, the shooting of the third part was special in several ways. “My wonderful husband, Thorsten Merten, and my bodyguard, Tim Kalkhof, have slowly become a real family,” she says in the interview. “This is very amusing in front of and behind the camera.” The cast was very sad, “when we had to diverge, a tear in the buttonhole was always there when someone got off board because it was a very special work”.

Thalbach reveals that the shoot on a real cruise ship was “not unexpective”. “Because I was not on land for four weeks. The passengers had a lot of fun around me, came and went and I longingly looked at the railing when they went ashore and the Canary Islands and Madeira discovered.”

But the shoot on board also had its advantages. Crew and passengers just played along, “that was wonderful and I hope you enjoy you discovering yourself in the film,” says the actress. Under certain circumstances, Thalbach would not personally not refuse a crime thriller cruise. “Maybe if I can discover the statue of freedom or penguins! And that environmentally friendly!”

The “Miss Merkel” film series is based on David Safier’s book series of the same name (58). Other possible films “would be very happy because I think we are getting better and better,” enthuses Thalbach.

Miss Merkel is an art figure, but of course she is always associated with ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel (71). Since the first film was released in 2023, the “real” Angela Merkel has only been encountered indirectly. “She was in the theater in the theater in the idea of ​​the” Murder in Orientexpress’ in May, so I directed and also played the famous detective Hercule Poirot and she had great compliments about the evening. I was very happy. “

Merkel’s autobiography “Freedom”, which was published in November 2024, read it and “found it very interesting,” said Thalbach. “Half of her life in the GDR and as a scientist and then her second astonishing career as the first female chancellor in the new German Republic. The book has become a great success worldwide. Of course I am pleased that I can represent a fictional third career, as a detective!”